


Goodbyes

by orphan_account



Series: Childhood Memories [5]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Drabble, Drabble Collection, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Growing Up, M/M, Young, Young Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-24
Updated: 2013-03-24
Packaged: 2017-12-06 08:48:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/733785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>When Harry is 9 Louis goes off to high school without him.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Goodbyes

When Harry is 9 Louis goes off to high school without him. He’s known that it’s been coming for a long time now – ever since he first realised the age gap between them it’s been an obvious barrier to their friendship that they’ve had to work hard to overcome, but in the 12 months since the older boy started Year 6 it has become even more apparent. They’ve done everything they can to ignore it and living in the moment to avoid the future has become his forte, but now it’s his friend’s last day of primary school and they’re stood together on the field after all the other pupils have gone home, watching the birds swoop through the azure sky that’s slowly beginning to fade to pink as the sun starts to duck behind the horizon. Eventually the former student takes it upon himself to break the silence.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” That wasn’t exactly what his mate was expecting, but he nods anyway, determined not to do something stupid like cry or kiss him, both of which are becoming frighteningly attractive prospects in his head.

“Yeah.” Silence follows for another minute, and then:

“I’m gonna miss you, you know?” The curly haired boy swallows although he’s been expecting this conversation for weeks now, and summons up the nerve to say the words he’s been planning in that time, only stumbling once when his emotions threaten to get in the way.

“But w-we’ll still be friends, right?” It’s all he can do to stop himself from crying even though he knows he’s too old to do something so babyish and it shouldn’t matter this much anyway because he has other friends. Well actually that’s debatable. However his companion’s eyes are also filling with tears as he pulls the significantly smaller boy to his chest and rests his chin on top of his mop of curls like he never wants to have to move from this position.

“Of course we will, Haz – we’re best friends forever, you know that!” Pulling away and bending down a little so that they’re staring into each other’s eyes, the 11 year old takes on a serious tone of voice and continues. “I will be your best friend even when we’re both grown up and married with kids, so do you honestly think that I’m going to let a little thing like moving schools change that?” For a moment Harry’s too overwhelmed with happiness to be able to say anything, but then he nods and pulls Louis into what he’s pretty sure is the tightest hug they’ve ever experienced while he mutters all of his rambling thoughts into the older boy’s shoulder.

“I’ll be your best friend forever, Lou, I mean it, you’re amazing and I don’t ever want to lose you, please don’t ever leave me because I swear I’ll never leave you…” Once he’s finished pouring his heart out until there’s nothing left of his soul to bear, they remain there for what might be minutes or might be hours, locked in each other’s arms while the sun sets behind them like a movie scene. There’s no further need for talking, just for holding and knowing and understanding and being, and in that time they both know that there’s no way they could ever be torn apart.

Later on, Harry lies on his back counting the stars with Louis until Anne comes to find them and insists that he gets home now that it’s dark. Later still when he’s lying in bed he tries to convince himself to stop reading too much into their conversation because it must just have been Louis’ poor grasp of grammar when in an emotional situation that made him sound like they were going to get married to each other and have kids together, right?


End file.
